Having found a way to make money, Qi Ze barely paid attention during his next few classes. He barely made it through the school day and immediately rushed back to the dormitory after school. Pushing the door open, his excited expression faltered slightly as he asked in a low voice, "Did you bring an outsider back today?"
Ouyang Ye, lying on the couch playing games, immediately shook his head. "Without your permission, how dare I bring an outsider back?"
Qi Ze nodded, returning to the bedroom without a word. Yan Junyu, following behind him, circled the living room twice but found nothing out of the ordinary, assuming the youth was a bit overly nervous. Special forces personnel had IQ levels much higher than the average person, and their memory was also incredibly robust. If any outsiders had come, he would not have missed any abnormalities.
However, his sense of superiority and confidence was soon dealt a heavy blow when Qi Ze took out that mysterious little mirror with surveillance capabilities and shone it around. Faint humanoid images appeared like mist, quickly becoming clear. On the mirror's surface, two men dressed in school uniforms appeared, each holding a scanner, carefully searching the room and then meticulously replacing the items they had moved back to their original positions.
Skillful and well-trained, this was the standard expected of reconnaissance troops. Clearly, they were not students of the Neptune Military Academy but agents sent by the military department. While the students were undergoing scanning, they had conducted a secret search of the entire building.
Unfortunately, they still found no leads.
The corner of Qi Ze's mouth curled slightly, as if in mockery, or perhaps nonchalantly, his palm smearing across the mirror's surface, causing all the images to disappear.
Yan Junyu covered his face and sighed softly: This was the third time. Xu Qi had actually missed the suspects three times in a row. He really wanted to see the expression on his face when he learned the truth.
Qi Ze clearly didn't take the military's intense operations seriously. After putting away the mirror, he opened the door and asked Ouyang Ye, "Have you prepared everything?"
"Just two more storm crystal cores, they can be delivered tomorrow. The basement has also been renovated. I've reset the permissions; for the next month, only you can use it." Ouyang Ye immediately put down the game controller, looking nervously at the youth, his obedient appearance like that of a student facing the headmaster.
Qi Ze nodded. Just as he was about to close the door, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "Your uncle runs a black market, does he accept antiques?"
"He accepts them, as many as there are." Ouyang Ye's eyes brightened.
"Good. Later, I'll show you something, help me estimate its value." Qi Ze slammed the door shut, cutting off Ouyang Ye's impending question.
"Selling antiques? Are they the assets left to you by your elders? If possible, I suggest you not sell them but keep them as a memento. Money can be earned slowly; why throw away the legacy of your family? Here, the things passed down from our ancestors are priceless treasures. They should be even more precious to you, right?" Yan Junyu earnestly tried to dissuade him, but the youth's next actions told him that he had guessed wrong.
Qi Ze searched through his bag for usable materials while muttering to himself, "I'll make a guqin with the face of catalpa wood and a bottom of Chinese privet. This is the most common type, it shouldn't arouse suspicion." As he spoke, two sections of cylindrical wood appeared in his hand.
Yan Junyu didn't recognize these types of wood but immediately realized that the youth seemed to be attempting to create a guqin on the spot, then sell it as an antique. He was speechless for a moment, finally warning sternly, "Fraud involving an amount exceeding one hundred million will result in a sentence of at least fifty years to over a hundred years in prison. Qi Ze, I did the math for you; if you were caught now, with all your crimes combined, you'd likely spend the rest of your life in prison. You are the most lawless person I've ever met."
As he spoke, he shook his head and chuckled softly, helplessly saying, "However, I now understand you better. You spend money lavishly, never looking at prices, your family must be very wealthy. You are so disregardful of the law, there must be someone in your family with high authority to rely on. You have wealth, power, and status, but you are mischievous, quick to retaliate, indicating that you were pampered and spoiled from a young age."
He called Qi Ze a spoiled child, but he could endure a lot. He said he was mature and experienced, but occasionally he would reveal an immature side. Yan Junyu sat beside him, watching his every move with interest, not realizing that his whole attention was focused on the youth.
He was holding a razor-sharp file, slowly hewing one section of the cylindrical wood into a flat, elongated shape with a curve, then meticulously polishing it smooth, carving out patterns. His movements were very skilled, and because the tools were well-suited, he could cut through metal like butter. In just half an hour, he had a rough shape; all that was needed were the strings to complete it.
Wood shavings flew in all directions, carrying a faint, characteristic woody fragrance. The youth's focused demeanor, the skilled and rhythmic movements, and the gradually forming guqin, all captivated Yan Junyu.
It was only then that he realized in horror that the youth had not made an ordinary guqin, but something akin to an elemental weapon. It could autonomously absorb elemental particles from the air. To play it, one would need to have a certain level of cultivation. When it finally emerged, many milky white dots slowly merged into the strings and then all vanished.
This miraculous spectacle occurred in an instant. When Yan Junyu looked closely again, the guqin was still the same guqin, with no abnormality other than the relatively new material. He wanted to open his mouth to ask, but he didn't know where to start. The secrets hidden within Qi Ze were clearly far more numerous than he had anticipated.
"This guqin, even if it's not an antique, should sell for an astronomical price." He said confidently.
Qi Ze placed the guqin on his knees, seemingly intending to test the sound.
"The strings are filled with elemental energy, only mental force users or ability users can play it, right?" Yan Junyu speculated uncertainly. However, soon, something even more surprising happened. He saw a multitude of light dots slowly well up from Qi Ze's slender fingertips, causing them to resonate slightly before even touching the strings.
Only then did Yan Junyu realize in a sudden epiphany, "I've been wondering where the elemental energy you absorb into your body every day goes. You don't have the special luminescence characteristic of ability users, even your eyes are pitch black, appearing no different from an ordinary carbon-based life form. But now I understand, elemental energy doesn't disappear, it is always stored within your body. It doesn't dissipate uncontrollably, it only activates when you want to use it."
Only ability users could appreciate the terrifying implications hidden within those words. This meant that Qi Ze could utilize the energy within his body to the fullest, without a single bit of unnecessary loss or waste. Other ability users, no matter how hard they trained, the energy within their bodies would gradually diminish with the movement of their muscles. They had to eat voraciously or meditate frequently to ensure that their strength remained at the peak.
Further reflection led to the thought: Qi Ze's body was akin to a sealed container that could fully contain elemental power. What would be the result when the quantity reached its limit? Would it be the collapse of the body or a qualitative change in power?
This question was like a fire, burning within Yan Junyu's heart. He had a vague feeling that he seemed to be touching upon a wholly new force system that transcended existing knowledge. If Qi Ze continued this way, where would he ascend? C, B, A, S, SS, or even SSS... Was this wishful thinking or an impending future?
Yan Junyu's thoughts were in turmoil, taking a long time to settle. In the end, he could only look at the youth with a bitter smile. He always thought he had learned enough, but then he would be stunned by him in the very next moment.
Unaware of all this, Qi Ze was slowly plucking the strings of the guqin. His right hand supported, pried, wiped, picked, and hooked... His left hand vibrated and twisted, stretched and rested, struck... He demonstrated various techniques one by one.
Lost in wild thoughts, Yan Junyu was drawn in by the guqin's high and low tones, fast and slow rhythms, the passionate and gentle melodies. Qi Ze's playing could hardly be called melodic. He seemed to play wherever his thoughts wandered, his eyes half-closed, and his movements incredibly lazy. But it was precisely this relaxed attitude that better matched the lofty and resonant sound of the guqin.
Yan Junyu unconsciously calmed down, only sighing with unfulfilled yearning when the tuning ended, "There's a saying in ancient books â art cleanses the soul, music cultivates character, it's this feeling. You can make guqins and play them, did you come from a musical family?"
As usual, Qi Ze didn't respond, picking up the guqin and walking out of the room.
Yan Junyu followed behind him, trying to dissuade him, "Regardless of craftsmanship, sound quality, or even attributes, this guqin is top-notch. But if you want to sell it as an antique, it won't work, it looks too new." But in the next moment, he wisely kept his mouth shut. He saw Qi Ze, as he walked, quickly absorb the elemental energy that had flowed into the strings earlier. By the time he reached the living room, only a thin layer of white light lingered on the surface. The originally brand new guqin had become plain and simple, ancient and elegant, as if it had been eroded by the passage of ten thousand years.
"Help me see how many star coins it's worth." He placed the guqin on the coffee table.
"I can't judge it, it needs to be tested with specialized equipment. Wait a moment, I'll get it." Ouyang Ye had good eyesight and quickly realized that a big deal was at hand. He hastily threw away the game controller and ran back to the bedroom to fetch the tools.
Yan Junyu rubbed his face, which had stiffened from too much shock, sighing, "Was that time magic just now? Qi Ze, how many more tricks do you have up your sleeve? But I have to remind you, the empire's scientists have specially invented a device to detect antiques. As long as you put an ancient guqin in it, it can immediately measure the material, age, and origin. Fooling the eye is easy, but fooling a machine is very difficult..."
At this point, he suddenly remembered the space scanner that had been deceived by the youth three times in a row. He could only sigh and wave his hand, "Alright, consider me talking to myself. What others can't do doesn't mean you can't either."
He didn't realize that he had developed an increasingly strong interest and growing anticipation for the youth.